Bite the Bullet
by L122yTorch
Summary: Jessica and Harvey crossed the wrong man and he comes at them with a vengeance...except he doesn't come for them. He comes for Mike. M for violence and eventual Marvey slash.


Nothing spectacular was happening that Friday in September. Well, nothing out of the ordinary. Just cut throat negotiations and high stakes cases…as usual.

Despite the fact that it was lunch time and many in the office had wandered off to find sustenance, the Justice League was still there. Jessica, Louis, Harvey and Mike had gathered in Jessica's office to settle a spat between Harvey and Louis who were fighting over a high profile case like a couple of school children. Louis already had Mike do a ton of leg work and the associate hung back from the direct line of fire as Jessica grilled her two associates.

Whether it was for the intimidation factor or simply because he wanted to be entertained, Darby had slipped into the room and rested in a chair in the back of her office.

Jessica barely paid attention to him. He was undoubtedly here to see how Jessica dealt with her minions firsthand, Mike grinned for a moment as he thought of Harvey as a minion. But Jessica's ice cold stare quickly dissolved the curve from his lips.

Each with their backs facing the glass wall that separated them from the hallway, no one had noticed the man approaching the door. Jessica noticed the out of place man first. Her oak brown eyes latching on to the foreigner.

"What the hell…" she started but stopped in her tracks as she saw the man pull a gun from his coat. Her mouth fell open, Harvey Louis and Mike all turning to see. But before Mike's eyes could meet the face of the mystery man, a rough hand grabbed the skin of his neck, pain shooting down his spine as the fist tightened.

The room filled with a charged silence immediately. Security guards poured from the elevators and into the hallway, only to be stopped by the sight of a black haired man holding a gun to a lawyer.

Mike immediately looked at Harvey whose face fell with shock and terror for only a moment before being rebuilt into an indiscernible jigsaw puzzle. "And who the fuck are you?" Jessica spoke first.

"I knew you wouldn't know who I am," the man replied with a smile, the gun still pointed at Mike's head, nestling into a patch of soft blonde hair. "But your hounds know who I am," he said gesturing to Louis and Harvey with his head. "I'm your worst nightmare."

Mike couldn't see Darby standing behind him and off to the side but the man must have been staring at the door a little too much because the man said "move, and I blow his brains out."

"What exactly is it you want?" Darby chimed in.

The man smiled and looked back towards Jessica. "My name is Taylor Stath, you buried me in a legal suit a decade ago. Ruined my life."

"So this is some vendetta," she said with a tone of disrespectful mocking. "Then why don't you take it up with me and let Mike go."

"It's not just about you bitch. It's about you, it's about Harvey, who by the way, bended the rules to get everything he needed to bury me - under your direction of course."

"See I knew this was a beautiful chance when you picked up this huge case prosecuting the company where I work. I've been keeping tabs on you two of course, but it was when I met Mike…" he waved the gun enthusiastically "that I knew I had something."

"I even met with Harvey and Louis about giving testimony against Alic Corp. Of course he didn't recognize me. I'm just another faceless soul he got locked up…wrongly I might add."

Harvey kept his eyes locked on Mike who was keeping his cool, for now.

"I spent eight years in prison. It wasn't a good stay."

The man lifted the gun in an instant and smacked Mike in the back of the head with it. The associate fell to his knees as a debilitating ache screamed around his neck and head.

"So just incase you're not taking notes, first you wrongly imprisoned me. Then you failed to recognize me when handling my company's case. You destroyed my entire life and didn't even blink."

Mike's hands were propping him up on the floor, the carpet was spinning. Then Taylor snatched a tuft of hair on the top of Mike's head, and swiftly brought his face to his pistol.

"Stop it. If you've got a problem with me or Jessica, you deal with it with us."

"No thanks," the man replied glibly. "This case has been going on for nearly a year and I've been watching you and Jessica and this firm. I've realized, through spying and getting to know Mikey that he is the smartest damn person here," he laughed darkly.

"This boy has a beautiful mind," he said rubbing the nuzzle into Mike's aching head, his body still a slump kneeling on the ground.

"When I went to prison, my kid suffered, my wife suffered, everyone I knew suffered. You all know Mike, you all like him, maybe you should suffer," he said bringing a knee to Mike's chest, and then kicking him in the ribs when he was on the ground moaning.

"Stop it," Harvey said, losing his cool.

Louis looked like he was about to piss hand reappeared at the back of Mike's neck.

"I know a lot about all of you," the man said. "I know that Mike was your golden boy Harvey, I know that Jessica threatened him, held a gun to his head, pun intended. Forced him to go against you Harvey…and who did you disown…not Jessica, but Mike! I know that he's Louis' now. I know that you're losing your baby," Taylor said gesturing to Darby who owned more than half of Pearson Darby.

"Do you know what killing Mike will do?"

"Put you in jail for the rest of your life you bastard?" Harvey retorted, "for a not so good stay."

"Probably…but it will burn out your brightest star Jessica. It will take away the smartest person at this whole fucking firm. It will twist your insides until you break Harvey. And every time you destroy someone's life through your dirty work, you'll remember the life I destroyed right here, in your office, in your house."

Blood was streaming down Mike's battered face that was already descending into shades of yellow and blue. Taylor picked him up by an arm and pinned it behind Mike's back. His ocean blue eyes were wide with fear and boring holes into Harvey, who could feel his heartbeat in his fingertips.

"You threw Mike away, even though it wasn't even really his fault, just as you threw me away," Taylor said pulling Mike's arm farther from it's socket, the young associate's face twisting in pain. Yelps slipped past Mike's bleeding lips, and Harvey was now sweating into his expensive Tom Ford suit. His facade shattered as a sick popping noise filled the silence in the room.

Mike screamed, tears streaming down the blood on his face. Police were hunched, crouched, standing, gathered in the hallway, the firm devoid of other workers who had long evacuated.

Harvey took a step forward but Taylor said "uh, uh, uh," and wrapped a hand around Mike's neck, pulling his body up from the ground by his throbbing neck.

"But you know what…I believe each man chooses his destiny, so I'm going to give Mikey three choices with the knowledge that there is only two live rounds in the chamber.

"Who am I going to shoot Mike, you or Harvey… The mentor that gave you up?"

Harvey's eyes were screaming, his body trembling, heart skipping. He had never in his life felt so completely defenseless. "Mike," he said nodding his head 'no.'

"What'll it be?"

"Me," Mike said, squeezing his eyes shut. His soul jumped out of his skin as he heard the click of the empty chamber. His breaths were ragged, blood pouring from his face and head, soft blonde hair a matted burgundy mess.

"Who am I going to shoot Mike, you…or Jessica," Taylor said turning the gun to Jessica. "The leader that destroyed, and I quote, "the most important person in your life." Did you know that Harvey? That Mike said you were the most important person in his life? The man that's on his knees who opted to take a bullet for you, who you refuse to forgive?"

"What'll it be?"

Mike's exhausted blue eyes drug themselves up to meet Jessica's gaze. For once in her life she didn't have an heir of smug confidence. She looked shaken, confused…at a loss for words or action. Mike knew that this could very well be the last decision he ever made.

"Me," Mike said.


End file.
